The divinity and incarnation of Christ. John bears witness of him. He begins to call his disciples.

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.¹

1. 1:1The words ‘Deus’ and ‘Verbum’ are both in the nominative case, so the text could be read as ‘God was the Word,’ or as ‘the Word was God.’ However, word order in Latin is not entirely irrelevant, therefore this translation prefers ‘God was the Word,’ over ‘the Word was God.’ The same translation choice is made in the original Rheims New Testament of 1582.(Conte)

² He was with God in the beginning.

³ All things were made through Him, and nothing that was made was made without Him.

⁴ Life was in Him, and Life was the light of men.¹

1. 1:4Deus, Verbum, Vita represents Father, Son, Spirit.(Conte)

⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.¹

1. 1:5The darkness represents the fallen angels and all evil in the world, which cannot understand the light of goodness. Notice that the light shines in the present tense, which is the closest tense to the timelessness of the Eternity of God, but the darkness is spoken of using the past tense, because fallen angels are trapped in Time.(Conte)

⁶ There was a man sent by God, whose name was John.

⁷ He arrived as a witness to offer testimony about the Light, so that all would believe through him.

⁸ He was not the Light, but he was to offer testimony about the Light.

⁹ The true Light, which illuminates every man, was coming into this world.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not recognize him.

¹¹ He went to his own, and his own did not accept him.

¹² Yet whoever did accept him, those who believed in his name, he gave them the power to become the sons of God.

¹³ These are born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and he lived among us, and we saw his glory, glory like that of an only-begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵ John offers testimony about him, and he cries out, saying: “This is the one about whom I said: ‘He who is to come after me, has been placed ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”¹

1. 1:15On one level of meaning, ‘ante me factus est’ means ‘ranks ahead of me.’ But there are other levels of meaning which that translation obscures. This is a frequent translation dilemma: one translation makes one level of meaning clearer, and other levels of meaning more obscure.(Conte)

¹⁶ And from his fullness, we all have received, even grace for grace.¹

1. 1:16This verse (particularly the last phrase) has several levels of meaning, and is somewhat obscure. This translation does not try to clear up every obscurity in Scripture, nor does it try to decide between various levels of meaning. On one level, it means that we have received grace upon grace; on another level, it means that we need grace from Christ for everything we do, even our cooperation with grace is a grace. And it seems to me that there are other levels of meaning also.(Conte)

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ No one ever saw God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has described him.

¹⁹ And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him, so that they might ask him, “Who are you?”

²⁰ And he confessed it and did not deny it; and what he confessed was: “I am not the Christ.”

²¹ And they questioned him: “Then what are you? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

²² Therefore, they said to him: “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

²³ He said, “I am a voice crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ just as the prophet Isaiah said.”

²⁴ And some of those who had been sent were from among the Pharisees.

²⁵ And they questioned him and said to him, “Then why do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the Prophet?”

²⁶ John answered them by saying: “I baptize with water. But in your midst stands one, whom you do not know.

²⁷ The same is he who is to come after me, who has been placed ahead of me, the laces of whose shoes I am not worthy to loosen.”

²⁸ These things happened in Bethania, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹ On the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and so he said: “Behold, the Lamb of God. Behold, he who takes away the sin of the world.

³⁰ This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me arrives a man, who has been placed ahead of me, because he existed before me.’

³¹ And I did not know him. Yet it is for this reason that I come baptizing with water: so that he may be made manifest in Israel.”

³² And John offered testimony, saying: “For I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove; and he remained upon him.

³³ And I did not know him. But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: ‘He over whom you will see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

³⁴ And I saw, and I gave testimony: that this one is the Son of God.”

³⁵ The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples.

³⁶ And catching sight of Jesus walking, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”

³⁷ And two disciples were listening to him speaking. And they followed Jesus.

³⁸ Then Jesus, turning around and seeing them following him, said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi (which means in translation, Teacher), where do you live?”

³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour.

⁴⁰ And Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard about him from John and had followed him.

⁴¹ First, he found his brother Simon, and he said to him, “We have found the Messiah,” (which is translated as the Christ).

⁴² And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, gazing at him, said: “You are Simon, son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas,” (which is translated as Peter).¹

1. 1:42I believe that John originally wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, the same language that Jesus most often used to teach, and that later John’s disciples translated it into Greek and added to it. That is why there are repeated references in the text saying ‘which is translated as.’(Conte)

⁴³ On the next day, he wanted to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”

⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael, and he said to him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the Law and the Prophets: Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good be from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and he said about him, “Behold, an Israelite in whom truly there is no deceit.”

⁴⁸ Nathanael said to him, “From where do you know me?” Jesus responded and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael answered him and said: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”¹

1. 1:49He was able to perceive the truth so readily because there was no deceit in him.(Conte)

⁵⁰ Jesus responded and said to him: “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, you believe. Greater things than these, you will see.”

⁵¹ And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending over the Son of man.”